Attacking with Barbarians-like freedom marked Wasps out as the eye-catching exception to the muscle-bound attritional smash-and-bash of modern-day rugby.

Through the instinctive mind of Danny Cipriani and the free-running talents of Elliot Daly, Christian Wade and Willie le Roux, the roar of expectation rose each time the Black and Golds broke free.

While two protagonists of that star-studded cast are long gone, the same fervency and will to break free with ball in hand remains.

For all of Wasps' creative endeavour in recent years, their pursuit of a first piece of silverware since 2008 continues with criticism pointed firmly at the defensive side of the ball.

Capturing the same zest and vigour, that excitement for thwarting opponents is the primary focus for the club's defence coach, Ian Costello.

Methodical and thorough

Recruited from Championship outfit Nottingham after five years at Munster, Costello cuts a methodical and thorough individual tasked with one of the toughest jobs in rugby - changing the philosophy and ultimately the perception of Wasps' defence.

Ian Costello, the Wasps defence coach

"One of the key focuses I wanted to achieve was for us to have the same levels of excitement around our defence as we do in our attack," said Costello, who spent the last two years at Thomond Park as a defence coach.

"Anyone who watches Wasps, and I have done for recent years, is really excited about the way we play rugby, it's all about getting a balance to that.

"It's about keeping the faith, working at the fundamentals all the time. So it becomes a habit under pressure. For years the attack has had habits under pressure, we've just got to make sure from a defensive point of view we're a lot more consistent."

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A glance at the statistics suggests what Costello later conceded, the process is a 'work in progress'.

From six Premiership games played Wasps' points difference is just +1 having conceded nearly 28 per game.

Blow that figure wider to incorporate both the opening two rounds of European and Premiership Cup action, the Black and Golds are conceding 30 points per match.

Encouraging signs

Within those matches there has been signs Wasps are on an upward curve of development.

James Lowe

Newcastle Falcons knocked on the door for a late win in September, but Wasps held firm.

Sale Sharks, albeit without World Player of the Year nominee Faf de Klerk and England's Chris Ashton, were almost completely nullified as an attacking force a week previous to that as Wasps cantered to a 31-13 away win.

Then came that Friday night in Dublin. While the scoreboard shows a 52-3 win for all-conquering Leinster, Wasps tackled themselves into the ground in the first half to trail 7-3 with the half-time whistle looming.

Lima Sopoaga's yellow card coupled by the host's blood-thirsty pack capitalised to score tries before the break and immediately afterwards, prompting the floodgates to open.

Tommy Taylor made 27 tackles against Leinster

"Our defence is a work in progress, there's no secret there," said Costello.

"I think it has been mixed. It hasn't been as consistent as we would've liked. In the early part of the season we showed some resilience away from home, you look back to Sale, you look back to Newcastle, when we had to close out the game.

"There's been some trends around mistakes that we are making that are undoing a lot of our good work.

"So you can see from the outside why people have been upset, we've conceded too many points, especially at home."

Embracing change

Frustratingly for Costello and the Wasps coaching team, so much of the hard work and progressive steps have been undone by lapses while seemingly in the ascendancy.

Rushing up off the line and meeting attacks head on is a high-risk, but high-reward strategy that has been the foundations of Saracens' recent successes.

Their 'Wolfpack' mentality relies on players' ability and desire to continually make themselves available for defensive work, clawing bodies up from the ground to strangle attacks at the embryonic stage.

Wasps top five tacklers from last three Premiership and European games

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"We're trying to put a lot more pressure on the opposition. We're trying to get off the line a lot harder and with that does come, unfortunately, some technical mistakes it's just about tidying those up as we go and making sure we don't undo the good work with some very basic errors.

"It's under fatigue, it's under pressure. You're trained to operate under pressure, you're trained to operate under fatigue. It takes a long time to establish habits.

"What's really important is we keep conviction, we keep faith with what we are doing and we know it's a work in progress."

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